[...] There can be no question that this past fall Merkel, as she sought to
create a “welcome culture,” followed a humane and moralistic impulse.
Humanity and benevolence—these were her lodestars. But she also acted as
a typical postwar German in an unconscious layer of terms like guilt,
sin and historical responsibility. The French philosopher Alain
Finkielkraut formulated it thus in an interview two months ago with the
prominent weekly Die Zeit: “As the first wave of refugees arrived, the
Germans believed that the moment had arrived to cleanse their historical
blackmark. They could buy themselves free.” Finkielkraut was heavily
criticized in Germany for these sentences. He was, so we were told,
practicing historical pathology.

In the meantime, however, the warnings about German refugee policy
are becoming steadily louder. And it isn’t simply conservatives or foes
of foreigners that are voicing their opposition. Merkel must have
particularly noticed the concerns of a group that is close to her
heart—Germany’s Jews. Josef Schuster, the president of the Central
Council of Jews, said at the end of November: “Many refugees are fleeing
the terror of the Islamic State and want to live in peace and freedom,
but at the same time they stem from a culture in which hatred of Jews
and intolerance are a permanent part.”

Is the German refugee policy promoting anti-Semitism in Germany?
Already Jews are leaving Western Europe in record numbers—almost 10,000
in 2015 according to the Jewish Agency. Above all, they are leaving
France, followed by Great Britain, Italy and Belgium. Now the wave could
reach Germany. But that would be the deathknell for Merkel’s refugee
policy.

“I’m incensed by the path that Merkel is following,” wrote Micahel
Hasin, a Jew born in Estonia, who now has a German passport and is a
lawyer in Hamburg. According to him, “the majority of all Jews and many
others whom I’ve spoken with are thinking about leaving.” Israel’s
ambassador in Germany, Yakov Hadas-Handelsman, said before Holocaust
Remembrance Day on Wednesday, “Many refugees are coming to Germany from
countries in which Jews are widely seen as enemies.” Among fleeing
Syrians conspiracy theories are swirling around in which Israel is
viewed as a supporter of Bashar al-Assad.

Merkel apparently understands how dangerous this connection can
become. In her internet podcast this past weekend she espoused a
determined battle against anti-Semitism which is much more widespread
“than we imagine.” She explicitly referred to refugees “from countries
in which hatred of Israel and hatred of Jews generally is propagated.”